ISU Rallies For 73-69 Win at Northern Colorado

POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State men's basketball team rallied from 16 down in the first half to beat Northern Colorado 73-69 on Thursday evening at the Bank of Colorado Arena in Greeley, Colo.

Idaho State had five players score in double figures for the first time this season, led by Ethan Telfair's 14 and seven assists. Brandon Boyd had 13, Geno Luzcando 12, Robert Jones III 11 and Balint Mocsan 10.

Luzcando had a team-high seven rebounds. ISU shot 54.8 percent for the game (26-48). The Bears shot 45.5 percent for the game but after shooting 55.6 percent in the first half, UNC was held to 35 percent shooting in the final 20 minutes.

"I feel as good as I have in the last five weeks," Idaho State coach Bill Evans said. "The second half was probably one of the best halves we have played this year."

Neither team shot free throws well as Northern Colorado was 6-19 and ISU 12-23. In the first half the Bears hit 11 3-pointers on 22 attempts and out rebounded the Bengals 19-9. In the final 20 minutes ISU out rebounded Northern Colorado 28-20 and held them to only two made 3-pointers. Luzcando had five of his seven rebounds in the second half.

"We got to their shooters and contested shots in the second half," Evans said. "You have to guard good shooters and in the second half we did a better job of getting to them.

The Bengals trailed 43-32 at halftime and 45-32 in the opening seconds of the second half. The Bengals then went on a 10-0 run to cut the Bear deficit to 45-42 with 16:52 left in the game after two free throws by Telfair.

"At halftime I told them we have to start getting after it," Evans said. "We didn't  contest a shot or get a loose ball and we were only down 11 points."  

Over the next five minutes Northern Colorado built its lead back to 12 at 55-43 with 11:54 remaining. The Bengals then countered with a 14-2 run to tie the game at 57 with 7:07 to play after a layup by Boyd.

ISU took its first lead since 6-3 at 65-64 with 4:16 left in the game after a 3-pointer by Jones. UNC led 69-68 with 2:29 to play when a layup by Telfair with 59 seconds left gave ISU the lead for good at 70-69. Jones hit one of two free throws with nine seconds left to extend the Bengal lead to 71-69.

Northern Colorado's Jordan Davis missed two free throws with one second left that would have tied the game and Stephen Lennox sealed the win by making two free throws with under a second to play.

Idaho State's biggest deficit was 16 at 25-9 with 9:40 left in the first half and 28-12 with 8:21 to play.

Idaho State plays at North Dakota on Saturday, Jan. 21 at 1 p.m. mountain time.

Notes: The starting lineup of Balint Mocsan, Novak Topalovic, Geno Luzcando, Ethan Telfair and Brandon Boyd was the 11^th different starting lineup combination this year.

• Ethan Telfair has 108 career steals, two away from moving into seventh place in the career-record books.
• Ethan Telfair has 886 career points.
• This was Idaho State's first win this year when trailing at halftime and only the 13^th win when trailing at the half in the Bill Evans era.
• This is only the third time since Bill Evans has been head coach that a Bengal team has had five players or more in double figures. ISU is 3-0 when this happens under Evans.
• All four Idaho State wins have come when opponents have scored 69 points or less.
• 10 points tied Balint Mocsan's career-high.

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